Determining the best places to go in 2025 was no easy task. After all, most of our readers suffer from the same affliction we do: an insatiable desire to go everywhere, see everything, and be dazzled by the world’s rich and varied contours. Treating a new year as a blank slate for fresh adventures is overwhelming then, no matter how tattered our passports.
Perhaps that’s why we get so excited about change—as a way of narrowing down the abundance of choices. The places that are evolving. The places that are just getting started. The destinations that are being reshaped by new openings: the standout restaurants, culture-defining museums, and boutique hotels swinging their doors open in the coming months. It is those places, imbued with a sense of a fresh start, that have a way of crawling up to the top of our must-visit lists.
In 2025 one of those places is Greenland, once a feather in only the most seasoned travelers’ caps. Its rugged ice-scape will be easier to reach now that the Nuuk airport has expanded, with flights increasing throughout 2025. Also calling to us is Ho Chi Minh City, which, at 50 years since the fall of Saigon this spring, has fully come into its own as a design and dining destination. And on Queensland’s Tropical Coast, the Great Barrier Reef, with aquamarine seas and a kaleidoscope of marine life, no longer stands alone in drawing travelers to this temperate coastline—a new hiking and biking trail and bold Indigenous art exhibits make the case for staying on dry land (or simply staying longer).
Greenland
In 2024, getting to Greenland from somewhere like Miami took 30 hours, three airport connections, and an enormous stash of in-flight snacks. In 2025, however, North Americans eager to see the majestic fjords, awe-inspiring icebergs, and incandescent northern lights on the world’s largest and least densely populated island can take a less circuitous route. In the capital, Nuuk International Airport (GOH), will serve as the autonomous Danish territory’s new international and domestic hub, accommodating long-haul jets and allowing direct flights—and easier connections—from the Americas. In June 2025, United Airlines will launch twice weekly service from Newark, New Jersey to Nuuk—becoming the first US airline to offer direct flights between the US and Greenland. Throughout 2025, Icelandair is also expected to launch flights into Nuuk, via Keflavik, from cities including Chicago and New York. Further out, in 2026, expanded airports in Ilulissat and Qaqortoq in South Greenland will open up access to parts of this country previously untrammeled.
Once on the ground visitors can enjoy Greenland’s rugged coastal landscapes, fascinating indigenous Inuit culture, and the opportunity to experience the country at its primordial best. Base yourself at Ilulissat’s Hotel Arctic and wake up to (you guessed it) a dreamy Arctic seascape littered with hulking icebergs. Seven new Aurora cabins have floor-to-ceiling windows made of heated glass so snow never obscures your view of the northern lights (known here as arsarnerit) illuminating Disko Bay. Get an even closer view on Diskobay Tours’ two-hour scenic sail through Ilulissat’s ice fjord, and marvel as you glide past what looks like an installation of gargantuan sculptures afloat in the most magnificent open-air museum. On land the company’s walking tour illuminates the culture and history of this former trading post. It is home to 5,000 people and more than 2,000 Greenland dogs, the indigenous sled-pulling breed that was crucial to early Greenlanders’ survival, enabling them to travel swiftly over ice fields to hunt for food. But for the deepest insight into Greenland’s culture and landscape, hop onto Arctic Umiaq Line’s coastal passenger ferry Sarfaq Ittuk, which has sailed the southwest coast since 1774, on 14-day journeys that call at 18 settlements including Sisimiut, Aasiaat, and Kangaamiut, all inaccessible by road. Some stops are less than an hour; others, half a day. As the ship sails past slate gray, snow-capped mountains to deliver both cargo and people to ports with as few as 90 residents, you’ll witness joyful reunions and tearful goodbyes that are as moving as the forbidding landscape. Or, opt to sail with luxury cruise line Ponant, which just announced new Greenland expeditions for 2025 aboard Le Commandant Charcot, the world’s first hybrid-electric polar exploration ship. The first of the two 16-day itineraries will travel from Canada’s Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the southwestern coast of Greenland; the second will start in Reykjavík and whisk guests to Greenland’s Disko Bay.
While its remote location at the top of the world makes flying and staying here expensive, Greenland isn’t for luxury lovers accustomed to being cosseted. Balancing visitors’ desires with what local communities need and what infrastructure can support is central to the country’s new Pledge Toward Better Tourism. And savvy travelers will appreciate the upside of more considered growth: fewer people to share Greenland’s majesty with. At least for now. —Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon
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Publish date : 2024-11-20 00:47:00
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